


Once in Spain

by kalirush



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Spain, Spies & Secret Agents, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 11:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18093641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalirush/pseuds/kalirush
Summary: “Your mission is to exfiltrate Howard Stark, to get him out of Spain and back into Allied territory where he and his giant brain belong.”SOE Agent Peggy Carter is sent into Spain on a rescue mission.





	Once in Spain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morvidra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morvidra/gifts).



**Santander, 1941**

“Your name is Harold Wilson, and I’m your sister Lucinda. We’re both Americans, from Toledo-

“Ohio, really?” Howard kept looking around him nervously as they walked. “You couldn’t pick Boston at least?”

“Calm down,” Peggy said. “Ohio, really, because it’s not especially interesting. We’re here for business- yours- but we’re making a stop in England before heading home. Got it?”

“Got it. I’m Harry, you’re Lucy- are you gonna do an American accent?”

“Yes, Harry, I am,” she said, in her best American. “Now, please try not to act quite so much like you have something to hide.”

There was a customs checkpoint at the entrance to the docks. Howard kept shifting his briefcase from one hand to another as the line shuffled slowly forward. Finally, they made it to the front of the line and offered their papers, their false names and their phoney stories. Howard was all nervous cheer, and Peggy wanted nothing more than to nudge him in the side and tell him to calm down- but that would have been a giveaway.

“Can we go?” she asked, as things dragged on. In English; an American in Ohio wouldn’t be expected to speak more than a few words of Spanish. “ _Por favor?_ We have a boat to catch.”

“ _Un momento, señorita- tenemos que examinar la maleta de su hermano-_ we search your bag, sir. Please,” the customs agent finished, in badly accented English. 

Peggy took a deep breath. Not good, but possibly not disastrous, especially if handled carefully. 

“On the table, please,” the agent said, pointing.

And then Howard flicked his wrist and a gun that Peggy had certainly not known about fell into his hand. “Sorry,” he said. “Can’t do that. C’mon, Carter!”

Peggy blinked, and then whipped the gun out of the nearest customs agent’s holster before he had time to react. Howard took off running, waving his gun wildly behind them. Peggy followed him, checking for places to hide. Once they were out of sight of the checkpoint, she dragged them behind some nearby crates. She could hear the sound of pursuit not _nearly_ far enough in the distance.

“You _idiot_ ,” she hissed. “What _precisely_ do you think you were doing _,_ and how exactly do you think we’re getting out of the country now?”

“I couldn’t let him search the bag,” he said defensively. “You know what’s in there.”

“And there’s every chance that a bunch of plans would have looked like gibberish to them,” she pointed out. “Your papers say that you’re a rail engineer; they might not have realized what they were, and even if they had, we could have asked them to search the bag in private- where we would only have had a single agent to deal with and more room to maneuver. As it stands, there’s no way we can get on the boat, and I don’t have a second set of papers!”

“Oh,” Howard said. He looked a little chastened, at least.

Peggy rubbed her forehead. “We need a smuggler,” she said. “But I don’t have a network here. SOE barely had time to arrange your extraction in the first place.”

Howard glanced around a crate. “What about a plane?”

“What _about_ a plane, Stark?” she snapped. “Do you see any planes about?”

“Not here,” he said, grinning. “But I paid attention on the way in. Unless my eyes deceived me, there’s a seaplane hangar a mile down the shore. And trust me, I can fly anything.”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble we’ll be in with our respective governments if we get caught stealing aircraft from a neutral country?” she asked him.

“Not nearly as much trouble as we’ll be in if we get caught and tried for spying,” he said, cheerfully. “So we better not get caught.”

“Fine,” she said. “But you’re damn well going to follow my lead from here on out,” she said. “No more hidden guns or haring off half-cocked.”

“I try never to do anything half-cocked,” he said solemnly. She glared at him.

Peggy managed to shake their pursuers. Two hours later, crawling laboriously through the dune grass toward the hangar, she consoled herself by remembering he was ruining his suit. He seemed like the kind of man who would miss it.

“How about that one?” he said, pointing. 

“The one that’s already in the bay?” she asked.

“They’ll already have fueled it up,” he said. “But I don’t see a pilot in it. So it’s our best bet. Hang on-” 

He whipped out what looked suspiciously like a checkbook, and scribbled in it. “I wouldn’t want anyone to say Howard Stark was a thief,” he said, flashing it in her direction. It was, Peggy noted, a check for 10,000 US dollars. An unimaginable amount of money.

“Fine,” she said. “Drop it in the hangar as we go by. And you had better be able to swim.”

He could, and he hadn’t been exaggerating his flying abilities either. Twenty minutes later, they were up in the sky and on their way to England. They landed at the beach near a small town named Portwrinkle.

“Thank god,” she said. “I can hand you over to the authorities now.”

“Aw, you’re not going to miss me?” he pouted.

“Mr. Stark,” she said, with every ounce of earnestness that she could muster, “You should avoid covert operations in the future, and I very much hope that our paths will not cross again.” 

He shrugged. “It’s a big complicated world, Miss Carter,” he said. “Thanks for getting me home.”

[](https://66.media.tumblr.com/ba6d35e9be5b2bb84f9d84a6a0f48087/tumblr_nlq22ziwGD1snkdsho1_1280.jpg)

**Author's Note:**

> The SOE ran a lot of female agents during the war, mainly into occupied France. If Peggy had her cover blown, she might well have crossed the Pyrenees into Spain to escape, giving her prior experience with the terrain and making her a good choice for the mission. It would also explain why she was loaned to the SSR after this (having a) worked with Americans successfully and b) being no good for their work in France).


End file.
